TAR has never been a show that revolves around its host; it's not a show like "Tough Enough" where a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin-type can make a huge impact on the show by using their charisma to command attention from the audience and the contestants.

As long as the TAR host reads their lines correctly, then they're doing their job.

and from my post allan wu is just one of 5 reasons why TARA has gone down the drains, so yeah, naturally he's not a big part of the show. but still, this guy is messed up, it's like he's lost it in front of a camera.

anyway, it's fitting that he went from hosting the Asian version to now hosting the Shanghai version that doesn't even leave the country. Boy, talk about falling deep into a hole.

Totally agreed, Kevin. TARA isn't doing near as good as TAR.To my opinion, the most annoying things for me are the product placements and repeated tasks.Yes, product placements are important to keep running the show, but shouldn't it be done fewer?Overdoing something never ended good, and I think overadvertising would annoy a good amount of people too.

And what wrong with the tasks? It has the same pattern over season that is repeated again and again.For instance, why should TARA does bungee jumping AGAIN?Or searching clues on the beach?Or scoring goals/keeping goals made in soccer?I think, the tasks should still be unique, memorable, but still representing the face of the host country, but latter seasons lack that.

And about Allan Wu as a host.I think it's hard to make a unique-and-memorable appearance as a host to another version of TAR.Allan and Phil surely are 2 different persons, they would have their own characteristics.I'm sure that if Allan actually is copying Phil's way of hosting, some of us would disagree again.So I think Allan Wu is doing a "just enough" job (but please just keep the exaggerating "pauses" to a minimum.)

Oh, and the penalties. I think TARA is over-giving penalties.5 minutes penalty on each goal made by locals? Okay, it is acceptable.But 4 hours penalty for failing RoadBlock (Season 4 Leg 2)? And not even a second try? What the?!I thought 4 hours penalty should be given if a team QUIT/CHOOSE NOT TO FINISH the Roadblock, not when they just fail to finish on first try???I still can't get over that event. To me it's unacceptable twist of rule.

But despite all the flaws, I have to say that Joab is true.TARA is the closest way that we Asian can actually feel the TAR experience.So please, please bring back more seasons of TARA, but improve them A LOT, producers.Just, make the best of the Race to give memorable experience to the Racers and us watchers,not just "in sake of making an Asian version of a popular US show"... It just won't work that way.

Thank you, and no offense to all TARA crews. It's just some inputs from a TAR fan.

As we can see, this is The Amazing Race Asia. However, there some non-Asian contestants. Let's see one by one:TARA 1: Andy, Francesca, Howard and Laura are from United Kingdom; and Sandy is from New Zealand.TARA 2: Henry is from United States and Aurelia is from France.TARA 3: Natalie is from Canada (she was born in Russia), Vince is also from Canada but with Chinese ethnicity; and Geoff is from New Zealand.TARA 4: The Richards are from United States; Ivan is from Hungary; and Jess is Australian.

I mean... Seriously??!!! It is okay if you're born in another country outside Asia but have Asian ethnicity.. But, it doesn't mean that if you're working in any Asian country and you're can represent that country in TARA. For example: Andy & Laura were representing Thailand in TARA 1; Richard Hardin & Richard Herrera were representing Philippines.

The thing that I really annoyed until now is the fact that the Richards, who were Americans, won The Amazing Race Asia?! I thought that The Amazing Race Asia is race for Asian people around Asia, not just race around Asia (except season 2) with contestants that are originally from outside Asia...

But despite all things that I said, I still need another season of The Amazing Race Asia..Like Joab and Calphin said, TARA is the closest way that we Asian can actually feel the TAR experience.There are many destinations in Asia that haven't been visited yet, even by the original version of TAR itself...

Things that I hope will be improved on the next season are:1. Fewer non-Asian contestants (If there is none that it'll be the best!)2. Fewer famous people.3. Fewer product placements.4. More creative task(s).5. The unacceptable rule and penalty, like this:

Oh, and the penalties. I think TARA is over-giving penalties.5 minutes penalty on each goal made by locals? Okay, it is acceptable.But 4 hours penalty for failing RoadBlock (Season 4 Leg 2)? And not even a second try? What the?!I thought 4 hours penalty should be given if a team QUIT/CHOOSE NOT TO FINISH the Roadblock, not when they just fail to finish on first try???I still can't get over that event. To me it's unacceptable twist of rule.

6. More countries and more cities/places that are less known to be visited (Mainland China and Brunei, anyone...??)7. More teams participated instead of just 10 teams.8. Speed Bump, anyone???9. About Allan Wu... I'm okay with it, because you can't copy Phil or Grant like 100%, right?

You might not want to read this if you don't like Allan because he addresses TARA5 at the end of this blog entry:

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Oh…for all of you who are wondering whether TARA5 is right around the corner this year…Unfortunately, we won’t be racing around the world this time around so let’s keep those fingers crossed so that we’ll be back in 2012 to do it!

Thanks again for all your love and support and we’ll catch up again soon!

You might not want to read this if you don't like Allan because he addresses TARA5 at the end of this blog entry:

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Oh…for all of you who are wondering whether TARA5 is right around the corner this year…Unfortunately, we won’t be racing around the world this time around so let’s keep those fingers crossed so that we’ll be back in 2012 to do it!

Thanks again for all your love and support and we’ll catch up again soon!

I don't know if Mark Nelson of TARA 2 should be the best replacement to Allan Wu for hosting TARA, if you agree with me. And for the upcoming TARA 5 and for the future seasons, my prefer type of the race should be just like what on TAR: Unfinished Business style and no more 30 minute penalty for giving a team who'd checked-in at the pit stop and it is a NEL but instead Allan or Mark should give the next clue and tell to the team that the race isn't over yet, and also they should go to North and South America and more Europe and Africa as well to travel and race besides the Asia-Pacific region. Probably that will be a good idea.

You might not want to read this if you don't like Allan because he addresses TARA5 at the end of this blog entry:

lol, it looks like one of us has already read the article and is bashing Allan Wu, poor guy

I read the criticisms in the blog comments, and I had to laugh, because he/she didn't even know that the same team produces both TAR Asia and TAR Australia.

As cabioTAR said, the difference in quality between TAR Asia and TAR Australia most likely comes down to budget. I expect the producers to be able to make lemonade from lemons, but I don't expect them to be able to make chicken salad from chicken ... .

You might not want to read this if you don't like Allan because he addresses TARA5 at the end of this blog entry:

lol, it looks like one of us has already read the article and is bashing Allan Wu, poor guy

I read the criticisms in the blog comments, and I had to laugh, because he/she didn't even know that the same team produces both TAR Asia and TAR Australia.

As cabioTAR said, the difference in quality between TAR Asia and TAR Australia most likely comes down to budget. I expect the producers to be able to make lemonade from lemons, but I don't expect them to be able to make chicken salad from chicken ... .

you would think that the asian version has a bigger budget considering it reaches to many countries around asia, therefore potentially having more viewers and the australian version only reaches australia, but it's not just the location that bothers me, there's plenty of other factors that have nothing to do with money. Such as

1. Camerawork and Editing - when you watch TARA and TARaus, in TARA it's so obvious that there's a man holding the camera following the teams around but in TARaus (and TAR US) u forget it because the camerawork is top notch, showing many different angles, now don't tell me TARA is incapable of doing such a thing. another thing is the editing, the repeating soundtrack is grating on my nerves and they never do anything really epic with the editing, it's just incredibly uninspiring.

2. Host - I've said this before and I'll say it again, ALLAN WU SUCKS!

3. Casting - Celebrities, Celebrities, Celebrities. What's wrong with normal people? A.D and Fuzzie were normal people and the only entertaining and endearing team of TARA3, as for TARA4 it was Ethan and Khairie, again normal people.

4. Challenges - I understand product placement, I do, but why can't the product placement simply be the prizes the first team receives? the product placement task were unexciting and most of the time a complete joke, take a sony camera and record someone telling you a joke? look through hundreds of sony blu-rays DVD and a Sony Bravia TV? Use the GPS on a Sony Whatever-it's-called to find ur way to some temple? it's a complete joke.

5. Unepicness - the greating thing about TAR is what it is, a journey between two people, it's EPIC. there are so many moments on the show that give you goosebumps (for example, Ron and Christina running to the pitstop in Japan on Leg 9, Season 12 or Flo and Zach winning TAR3) and a lot of tension. TARA has tension, but the teams are so bland and unlikeable (like the race between Henry & Bernie and Sam & Vince to not get eliminated on TARA3) you really don't give a crap who gets eliminated and I can only think of two epic moment (both from the first two season). Joe Jer and Zabrina running to the final pitstop in TARA1 and Collin and Adrian running to the final pitstop in TARA2, everything after that is bland, and unepic

1. Camerawork and Editing - when you watch TARA and TARaus, in TARA it's so obvious that there's a man holding the camera following the teams around but in TARaus (and TAR US) u forget it because the camerawork is top notch, showing many different angles, now don't tell me TARA is incapable of doing such a thing. another thing is the editing, the repeating soundtrack is grating on my nerves and they never do anything really epic with the editing, it's just incredibly uninspiring.

FYI, TARAus is 3rd baby for the Production (ActiveTV). 1st TARA (4) and 2nd TARI (2). So they had learned and improved so much. So their camerawork also improved in TARAus. Even TARAus's intro also different/improved from his/her bro/sis.

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4. Challenges - I understand product placement, I do, but why can't the product placement simply be the prizes the first team receives? the product placement task were unexciting and most of the time a complete joke, take a sony camera and record someone telling you a joke? look through hundreds of sony blu-rays DVD and a Sony Bravia TV? Use the GPS on a Sony Whatever-it's-called to find ur way to some temple? it's a complete joke.

May as per agreement by Production & the sponsors. I think Prod did consider this complaint for TARA, so we not see in TARAus.

it hurts me to say this *sarcasm*, but I think TARA is officially dead, it's obvious TARA3 had a MASSIVE budget cut, it's obvious, really, and we had to wait nearly 2 years for the next season, which seems to run on the same budget as TARA3. Now apparentely there's no season this year, they can't keep making seasons every two years, the gap is too large.